The Office of the Supreme Leader

The Canonic Status of a Mosque’s Non-Devotional Buildings

Q.| Can someone who is junub enter a mosque’s kitchen, shoe room (kafshdārī),[1] library, or restrooms without having to first undergo ritual purification by performing the ablution of ghusl?
A.| If the non-devotional buildings of a mosque have not been canonically consecrated as sanctified grounds, they are not subject to the precepts that govern the sacred grounds of a mosque, and thus entering them does not require ritual purity.

[1] A shoe room, or kafshdārī, is the entrance to a mosque where there are shoe racks in which worshipers place their shoes prior to entering the prayer hall, and it is usually separated by a door or a walkway from the prayer hall.
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